The inventors were interested in making natural and vegetal preparations for curing the hangover. After several tens of tests by using alders and mountain ashes, growing in Sosan, a region in Korea, inventors succeeded in making natural teas consisting of only vegetal ingredients, which are capable of curing the hangover, when taken before or after taking alcoholic drinks. The teas according to the present invention include extracts coming from leaves, stems, or roots of alder and mountain ash and further extracts coming from herb medicines being known to have functions of protecting the liver in the human body or detoxicating.
The hangover or the aftereffects of the heavy drink is thought to be influenced by toxic ethyl alcohols and/or acetaldehydes being accumulated in the liver from heavy alcoholic drinking. The hangover continues for hours due to the harmful effect of toxic ethyl alcohol and/or aldehyde on the liver, which causes the metabolism of the body to be deactivated, resulting in fatigue and exhaustion feeling of the whole body, feeling of having gas in the vowels, and vomiting.
Under a normal metabolism relating to ethyl alcohols in human body, the ethyl alcohols are absorbed into the stomach or the small intestines and thereafter, transferred to the liver through blood vessels. Alcohol dehydrogenase in the liver cells catalyzes the oxidation of ethyl alcohols to acetaldehydes, which in turn are decomposed into acetic acids by acetaldehyde dehydrogenase in the same cells. The resulting acetic acids are transferred to muscle and adipose tissues of the body and eventually converted to CO.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O. Further, there are two types of acetaldehyde dehydrogenases: I--type one catalyzing the oxidation process of low concentrations of acetaldehydes and II--type one starting to activate the oxidation process only on high concentrations of acetaldehydes. Unfortunately, it is usual that Oriental people are lacking or short of the II--type acetaldehyde dehydrogenases and accordingly the oxidation of acetaldehydes is not so well activated that acetaldehydes and/or ethyl alcohols may not be decomposed and remain in the liver. The acetaldehydes and/or ethyl alcohols exceedingly accumulated in the liver disturb the normal metabolism and result in hangover. For diminishing or curing hangover, some herb or chemical medicines have been evaluated and used individually or in a group for hangover cure drinks.
A variety of herb medicines have been used for curing hangover and many liquid cures including such herb medicines are on the market. Those drinks may be taken alone before or after drinking, or mixed with strong alcoholic drinks to be taken. However, those beverages have some problems: one is to do more harm than good for curing the fatigue, feeling of having gas in the vowels, vomiting, or stomachache, and the other is the high price owing to the expensive medicinal herbs contained therein.
An object of the present invention is to provide natural teas or beverages which are capable of curing the hangover.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such hangover cure drinks with a low price.